The G20 failed to deliver on its development agenda and marginalised the needs of poorer countries at its summit in Cannes, leading charities and non-governmental institutions (NGOs) warned on Friday.
The overwhelming focus on the eurozone crisis overshadowed all other issues at the leaders’ summit in France this week, meaning that talks on development and climate change related issues were relegated to the background, despite France’s pledge to prioritise development and climate change during its tenure as G20 chair.
This triggered strong criticism from NGOs, who accused G20 leaders of failing to deliver on their promises.
“The most important issues of concern to developing countries have been marginalized. While the G20 served a full hearty meal for Greece and the eurozone, there were mere crumbs left for the hungry world,” said Soren Ambrose, from Action Aid in Kenya. “There is an exclusive focus on the market, and development issues come last.
French president and G20 chair Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged that the urgency of resolving the eurozone crisis had dominated discussions during the two-day summit in Cannes, to the detriment of progress on other issues.
“It’s true that because we spoke so much about the immediate crisis we spoke less about poverty, about development, and I share in the disappointment on this,” he said.
However, he insisted that the G20 had made significant announcements on development-related issues, as well as on financial regulations, in particular through commitments by the EU and a number of G20 member nations to introduce a financial transaction tax.
He also listed 11 states which he said did not have any legal framework to govern the exchange of tax information with other nations, and added that a list of such tax havens would be published at all future G20 summits. “The message is clear; we do not want to have tax havens any more,” he said.
Bernard Pinaud, director of the CCFD and representative of the civil society at a pre-G20 meeting with Sarkozy said that these efforts did not go far enough.
“We expected more radical measures in terms of financial regulations. There has been some progress but it is not up to what is really at stakes,” he said.
Other NGO representatives said the anti tax-haven rhetoric lacked bite. Mathilde Dupré, a spokesperson for Catholic charity CCFD Terre Solidaire, said she was “very disappointed” by the G20 response on tax havens. She said no country had been blacklisted by the G20, and that only Libya and Venezuela are being monitored more closely.
The perceived lack of progress on development issues at this year’s G20 summit reignited criticism that the G20 as a group fails to represent or address the needs of the developing world.
“It is a consensus of 20, it is not a consensus of the world,” said Soren Ambrose
Marta Benevides, from GCAP in El Salvador questioned the Cannes summit slogan that read: “History is being written in Cannes,” she said. “Who is writing it? And for whom and for what?”
“We see that emergency situations here [in Europe] get resolved very quickly. There is a political will to solve certain problems, and not all of them,” she said.
However, others have defended its development record and its right to speak for developing nations. “Clearly we cannot have everybody around the table,” Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank told Emerging Markets. “The G20 as a group has got a force for legitimacy,” he added.